INTRODUCTION

Disability studies is often understood as a field that gained prominence during the 1980s and 1990s, with a decisive moment occurring in 2007 through the adoption of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which consolidated the rights-based model of disability. While this perspective acknowledges important developments in the discipline, it risks overlooking the longer and more complex history of disability as a cultural and literary discourse. Disability has been represented, negotiated, and interpreted in literature and culture well before the formal emergence of disability studies as an academic field.
Significant engagements with disability can be traced to the early decades of the twentieth century, particularly between 1900 and the 1950s, in both English literature and the literary traditions of the Indian subcontinent. The two World Wars played a crucial role in intensifying attention toward disability, as large numbers of soldiers returned from combat bearing physical injuries and psychological trauma. Literary texts from this period frequently address themes of alienation, mental distress, bodily impairment, and social marginalisation, reflecting the profound human cost of war and its aftermath. Such representations also intersect with broader inter-war anxieties and the evolving post-World War II discourse on human rights.

Twentieth-century literature and cinema offer nuanced portrayals of disability that challenge simplistic or medicalized understandings, foregrounding instead the social, emotional, and cultural dimensions of disabled lives. These representations reveal how disability is shaped not only by bodily difference but also by social attitudes, institutional structures, and historical contexts. Examining these cultural texts enables a deeper understanding of the relationship between representation, societal perception, and the lived experiences of persons with disabilities.
An engagement with these early representations highlights the need to recognise disability as a longstanding and evolving discourse within literary and cultural studies. Integrating such perspectives into English Studies can contribute to more inclusive pedagogical practices and encourage a critical awareness of disability as a central aspect of human experience rather than a marginal or recent concern.

KEY THEORETICAL FRAMEWORKS PRESENTED BY MICHAEL OLIVER IN
UNDERSTANDING DISABILITY: FROM THEORY TO PRACTICE AND HOW THEY
CONTRIBUTE TO OUR UNDERSTANDING OF DISABILITY IN SOCIETY

Disability is complex, dynamic and multidimensional over recent decades, the disabled movement,
together with numerous researchers from the social and health science have identified the role of social
and health science have identified the role of social and physical barriers in disability. Disability is the
umbrella term for impairments, activity limitations and participation restrictions, referring to the aspects
of the interaction between an individual with a health condition and that individuals’ contextual factors
environmental and personal factors. A person’s environment has a high impact on the experience extent of disability inaccessible environments generate disability by creating barrier to participation and inclusion. Examples of the possible impact of the environment. Include a deaf individual without a sign language interprets. A wheelchair uses in a building without an accessible bathroom. Health is also affected by environmental factors such as safe water and sanitation. Nutrition, poverty, working
conditions, climate or access to healthcare. As the Social Elements of Health has argued, inequality is a
major cause of poor health and hence of disability.
Michael Oliver a prominent figure in disability studies, has been instrumental in shaping the discourse surrounding disability and challenging societal observations. Disability from theory to practice seeks to bridge the gap between hypothetical perspective on disability and their practical application in real world contexts. Oliver’s work is grounded in the social model of disability, which assert that disability is not solely a result of an individual impairment but is largely shaped by social and environmental factors that create barricades to participation and inclusion. Oliver suggests that while the social model has been instrumental, it’s not a complete solution. He likens it to a child that isn’t fully matured, hence advocated for continued examination, evolution and modification of the mode to better encompass the diverse experience and challenges faced by disabled individual. Individual model. The problem of disability is situated within the individual.

The causes of disability are attributed to functional limitations or psychological losses resulting from the
individual’s diminishing. This perspective is grounded in the personal tragedy theory of disability, where disability is seen as a random unfortunate event that affects individuals. Oliver introduces the social model of disability as a rejection of the individual model ultimate. Disability is not a problem inherent in the individual, but rather it’s situated within the society. The causes of disability are not individual limitation, but rather the failure of society to provide necessary services and accommodate the needs of disabled people in the structures. Disability encompasses various factors that restrict disabled people, including prejudice, discrimination unapproachable environment and exclusion from education.

While the social model of disability has been instrumental in reshaping how disability is understood and addressed, it has also faced criticism from various perspective. Overlooking personal experience of impairment. Critic argues that the social model lends to downplay or overlook the personal experiences and challenges associated with impairments while the model the model emphasizes societal barriers, it might not adequately acknowledge the physical and emotional struggle that individual with weakening face. Example argues that her visual impairment imposes some social restrictions which cannot be solved by the application of the principles of social model. She points out situation were impairment led to
precise social constraint.

Impairment refers to a physical, sensory, intellectual or psychological condition that affects an individual’s bodily or mental functioning. It’s a medical or biological phenomenon that can be diagnosed by healthcare professionals. Impairments can vary in their nature and severely. They can be temporary or permanent examples of impairment include loss of vision, paralysis, cognitive disorder and chronic pain. Disability The Person faces barriers in accessing public transportation, building, and workplace, that are not wheelchair accessible. These societal barriers create a disability that limits their participation in various aspects of life. Example Impairment, a person has a learning disability that affects their reading and writing skills. Disability the person faces challenges in the education system due to inadequate accommodation such as lack of specialized teaching, method.

Mike Oliver discusses the historical context and evolution of social policy and welfare provision for disabled people. He explores the shift from needs-based approaches to a right based perspective in addressing the challenges faced by disabled people. The chapter critiques the traditional approach of providing services based on individual needs and argues that this approach has failed to address the systemic discrimination and exclusion experienced by disabled people. Oliver highlights the limitation of the needs-based approach by pointing out that it has led to dependency, professional dominance and inadequate support for disabled individuals. He emphasizes that the provision of services based on assessments of individuals need has perpetuated discriminatory practices and inherently deficient.

The author introduces the concept of institutional discrimination, which refers to discrimination
embedded within the policies and practices of institutions. Oliver argues that this form of discrimination is evident when organization and societal structures result in unequal treatment or outcomes for disabled individuals. He discusses how traditional welfare services, despite their intentions, have contributed to institutional discrimination and segregation. Oliver advocates for shift towards a light-based approach that focuses on equal citizenship and inclusion. He argues that disabled people should have the same entitlement to services, resources and opportunities as non-disabled individual.

The interplay between disability and gender is a dynamic intersection that profoundly shapes the experiences of individuals within societal contexts. Amplifying Women’s Gender at the Intersection. At the heart of the intersection of disability and gender lies the amplification of women’s experiences disabled women encounter a distinct set of challenges that stem from the interplay of between these identities. This intersection can lead to double marginalization, where individuals grapple with discrimination stemming from both their disability and gender. These compound biases limit accessing to education, healthcare, employment and political engagement.

Education and Employment Disparities. Disabled women often confront system is barriers in education and employment. Gender norms that traditionally undervalue women’s contributions combine with ablest attitudes, limiting opportunities for advancement. The intersectional of their identities creates a unique. The intersection of Women and disability is a complex and multifaceted topic that requires a thoughtful and in-depth analysis of the experiences of women with disabilities. Women with disabilities often experience a double marginalization, as they are simultaneously marginalized based on their gender and disability. This intersectional identity can amplify the challenge they face, including unequal access to education, employment, healthcare. Discrimination stereotype. Society often perceives them through a lens of Dependency and vulnerability which can limit their autonomy and opportunities. Violence and Abuse. Heightened risk of experiencing form of violence and abuse. Face barriers in reporting abuse, accessing support services or finding safe shelter. Perpetrators exploit their vulnerably.

M.A. Tenzin Lhawang, Department of English, Delhi University.

The paper then turns to Leslie Marmon Silko’s Ceremony (1977), where precarity is articulated through the figure of Tayo, a Laguna Pueblo veteran suffering from “battle fatigue” after World War II. Tayo’s psychological and physical distress is inseparable from the historical trauma of Indigenous land loss, cultural fragmentation, and militarized service to a settler nation. Silko’s narrative reframes disability not as individual pathology but as a collective and historical condition, offering healing practices rooted in Indigenous epistemologies that challenge colonial notions of health, normalcy, and national belonging.

Finally, the study analyzes William Vollmann’s Fathers and Crows (1992), the second volume of his Seven Dreams series, which traces seventeenth-century colonial incursions into northeastern Canada. Through the figure of “William the Blind” and the demystification of Saint Kateri, revealed as scarred, pock-marked by smallpox, and blind, Vollmann exposes the violent erasure of disabled Indigenous bodies from colonial hagiography. Across these texts, disability emerges as a critical lens through which Indigenous literature and historiography articulate “alternative ethical maps of living,” resisting the colonial rendering of Native lives as disposable or ungrievable.

Prof. David T. Mitchell, Department of English, Columbian College of Arts & Sciences, George Washington University.

“WE MAKE HOLOCAUSTS”: PRECARIOUS EMBODIMENT IN CONTEMPORARY NOVELS OF DISABILITY AND INDIGENEITY

This paper Centers on the concept of precarity, drawing on Judith Butler’s theorization of “precarious embodiment” to examine how disability is represented as an alternative mode of value and survival within Indigenous contexts. Rather than approaching disability solely through loss or lack, the study reads bodily vulnerability as historically produced through colonial violence and as a site from which counter-ethical ways of living emerge. By situating disability within structures of dispossession, genocide, and labour exploitation, the argument foregrounds how Indigenous and marginalized bodies are rendered precarious yet remain resistant to dominant Euro-American frameworks of sovereignty and productivity.

The first section examines the opening poem of Adrienne Rich’s An Atlas of the Difficult World (1991), focusing on her portrayal of Mexican migrant labourers working on toxic borderland farms in the southwestern United States. Rich situates these labouring bodies within a long history of colonial dispossession that stretches from late fifteenth-century genocide to contemporary forms of environmental and economic violence. The damaged and overworked bodies of migrant workers exemplify precarious embodiment, revealing how colonial modernity continues to produce disability through exploitative labour conditions while simultaneously erasing the grievability of these lives.

THE CRIP CAMP YET TO COME: CROSSING BORDERS WITH QUEER/CRIP THEORY

This presentation examines the filmic representation of disability activism in the United States during the 1970s, with a particular focus on the critically acclaimed documentary Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution. By revisiting key moments narrated in the film most notably the month long occupation of federal buildings in San Francisco in 1978 the paper analyzes how the documentary constructs a celebratory narrative of triumph, progress, and political overcoming. While powerful, this narrative is shown to rely on a limited vocabulary that is implicitly heteronormative, U.S. centric, and invested in a linear model of political success.

The presentation argues that Crip Camp ultimately frames disability activism through a model of overcoming that it attempts to universalize and export beyond its national context. In doing so, the film suggests often implicitly that the U.S. trajectory of disability rights activism represents the ideal or preferred framework for global disability movements. Such a framing risks marginalizing alternative histories, strategies, and embodied experiences of disability activism that do not align with U.S. political structures or cultural norms.

Pivoting from this critique, the presentation introduces the concept of “crip camps yet to come” to imagine disability activism beyond U.S. centered paradigms. Turning outward, it explores how queer and queercrip theoretical frameworks can help identify emergent vocabularies and practices of disability justice in other geopolitical locations. In particular, the paper analyzes a disability activist encampment in La Paz, Bolivia, as represented in the film La Lucha (The Fight).

La Lucha, it is argued, gestures toward a form of disability justice that is not beholden to U.S. narratives of rights, progress, or normalization. Instead, the film foregrounds intersectional struggles shaped by local histories, economic precarity, and collective modes of resistance. Through this lens, the presentation suggests that “crip camps yet to come” offer new, transnational ways of imagining disability activism ones that expand the language of crip and queer rip politics beyond the limits of U.S. centric frameworks.

Prof. Robert McRuer, Department of English, Columbian College of Arts & Sciences, George Washington University.